Hungarian GP: Strategy Overview

This weekend, during the Hungarian Grand Prix, drivers and teams used a wide range of strategies and couldn’t rely on a predefined plan, as the rain forced them to improvise with varying degrees of success, as was the case for Fernando Alonso who decided, after a difficult start to the race, to switch to a 4-stop strategy.

Once is not the norm, Mark Webber was the first to take the risk, with Felipe Massa, Vitaly Petrov, and Rubens Barrichello tailing him, to fit the slick tires on a still-wet track. And once again, the Australian was the first among the leaders to switch to soft tires but ruined his race end by opting for intermediate tires when the rain briefly returned to the circuit.

The race was partly decided by how teams managed the rainy episode that occurred around the 50th lap. No less than four teams decided to hedge their bets by having one driver come in to switch to intermediate tires while the second driver stayed on track with soft tires. This was the case for McLaren, Force India, Virgin, and HRT. Others took the risk of placing their drivers on the same strategy, like Williams, which brought in both Rubens Barrichello and Pastor Maldonado on the same lap to switch to intermediate tires, thus ending any hope of scoring points, as the Brazilian admitted in his post-race statements.

But the fate of the race was not only decided at that moment since Jenson Button’s victory was also built on the choice to switch to soft tires while his teammate preferred to stay on super-softs. The 2009 world champion thus put together a very solid series of laps before the rain intervened again, which, by his teammate’s own admission, pushed the latter to his limits, before claiming his 11th Grand Prix victory, the 4th in similar conditions over the past two years.

Paul Hembery’s Eye:

« It was another fascinating race contested in changing conditions that allowed Jenson Button to demonstrate his skills in exploiting changing weather and the capacity of our tires, which showed both performance and endurance throughout the Grand Prix. Even when the rain fell at the end of the race, Button managed to find enough grip with the soft tires to secure a well-deserved victory.

There was a very wide variety of strategies employed by all the teams throughout the race with the Top 5 using four different strategies, but ultimately, it comes down to each driver’s skill in getting better grip with slick tires on a slippery track.

Lewis Hamilton also led a brilliant race, and seeing his recovery at the end of the race, despite 6 pit stops, was fantastic.

I am particularly delighted because the Hungaroring has not always been known for overtaking in the past, but today we saw plenty.

In order to have a better understanding of this graph, you can use the FIA lap-by-lap summary by clicking here.